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BOONE, N.C. – The Virginia Tech men’s cross country team had 12 runners finish in the top 15 and the women’s cross country team placed nine runners in the top 15 en route to first place finishes at the Mountaineer Open hosted by Appalachian State on Friday evening.

For the men, senior Leoule Degfae finished the 8K race with a time of 25:05.81 to finish in first place overall. Sophomore Ryan Kuhns was less than half of a second behind Degfae, finishing with a time of 25:05.93 for a second place finish while senior teammate Grant Pollock was just behind him finishing third with a time of 25:06.06.

Junior Jared Berman, freshman Neil Gourley, freshman Stuart Robinson and junior Kevin Dowd finished in fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh respectively as the last scoring runners for the Hokies.

Sophomore Darren Barlow (8th), freshman Patrick Joseph (9th) and sophomore George Carter (10th) also finished in the top 10 for Tech.

With 12th and 13th place finishes, sophomore Juan Campos and freshman Vincent Ciattei were the final finishers for Tech in a race that saw 65 runners compete.

The women’s team was led by junior Sarah Rapp and Courtney Dobbs who finished within two hundredths of a second of each other for second and third place finishes respectively. Rapp posted a time of 18:10.08 while Rapp finished with a time of 18:10.10.

Junior Madalyn Nuckols, freshmen Shannon Morton and Abigail Motley and sophomore Katarina Smiljanec finished fifth through eighth respectively.

Junior Paige Kvartunas and sophomores Amanda Smith and Ashley Hayes also finished in the top 15 in 12th, 13th and 15th places respectively.

Tech continues its season on Saturday, Oct. 19 at the NCAA Pre-Nationals in Terre Haute, Ind.

For updates on Virginia Tech cross country, follow the Hokies on Twitter (@VT_Track).